Core-shell structured Al-Si@Al 2 O 3 microencapsulated phase change material (MEPCM) has shown promise for high-temperature latent heat thermal energy storage applications, and has recently been proposed as a thermo-regulating catalyst support. However, the reported performances of MEPCMs are...

The local bus market in Japan was deregulated in 2002. This study examines the impact of this deregulation on the market structure and the operators' cost efficiency over the last ten years. First, we perform a qualitative before-and-after-deregulation analysis of Japan's bus market, finding...

Using a dataset of 111 Japanese cities in 2005, the article estimates the social costs of car transport and analyses the structure of the components of and the relationship between social costs and city size. The following major results are obtained. First, the social costs of vehicular...

The publicly-owned municipal bus sector that provides local transport in Japan is in a difficult situation because of operating deficits, inefficient operations and management, and budgetary constraints of expanding subsidies, and thus, it needs to be restructured to improve efficiency. This...